Mary F. Sullivan, philanthropist, active volunteer

A memorial service will be held at noon June 15 in Holloway Memorial Chapel, Point Abino, Ont., for Mary F. Sullivan, a Buffalo philanthropist who did extensive volunteer work for seven local not-for-profit organizations.

Mrs. Sullivan died March 27 in a Needham, Mass., nursing home. She was 92. She last lived in Buffalo in 1994, but she spent her summers in Rose Hill, Ont., until 2008.

A Lockport native, the former Mary Ferguson graduated from Lockport High School, Chatham Hall in Virginia and Vassar College, with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1942.

She worked with Dr. Ernest Witebsky at Buffalo General Hospital, where she met her future husband, Dr. James R. Sullivan, a surgeon, chief of staff at Sheridan Park Hospital in the Town of Tonawanda and team physician for both the Buffalo Bills and Bisons.

Mrs. Sullivan volunteered for Children’s Hospital, the Ingleside Home, Trinity Church, American Field Service and Holloway Memorial Chapel.

She also headed the Vassar College Scholarship Fund when it interviewed and recommended prospective students, and she also served on the board of directors of Buffalo Seminary.

Her husband died in 2002, after 58 years of marriage.

Survivors include a daughter, Elizabeth S. “Lisa” Bond; and a son, Kenneth F.